Reviewing Random Films For Fun

September 27, 2015

Der Blaue Engel #MovieReview

Film 238 in the “1001 Films to See Before You Die” challenge is 1930’s “The Blue Angel.” Or to give it it’s German title, “Der Blaue Engel”. Based on Heinrich Mann’s 1905 novel “Professor Unrat”, this Josef von Sternberg is about the tragic transformation of a man from a respectable professor (Emil Jannings) to a cabaret clown, and his descent into madness. I managed 15 minutes before I actually fell asleep. Emil Janning’s acting in this film was so wooden. Why did the director think it was a good idea to give an actor who only speaks German an English only script to read and act out? It clearly doesn’t work. Also, this school he works for. These must be some thick students as they all look like they’re in their mid/late 20s. Also, you know a film is great when they have nothing but silence and make you actually write the word “the” 200 times because someone in class says “the” with a “Z” instead of a “T”. That’s a topic of discussion for another day. Overall, this is a bad film with stiff acting and scenes that made me feel like I was back in school. When this film was released in 1930, Mordaunt Hall from The New York Times had this to say about the film, “A decidedly interesting picture with exceptionally fine performances.” Think someone say a different film to me. Fun Fact of the Film – The role of Lola was claimed to be played by Leni Riefenstahl but that rumour is debatable. Leni would go on to film “Triumph of the Will” 5 years later. If you have seen this film then let me know what you thought of it in the comments. Here is what I managed to say while watching 15 minutes of “Der Blue Engel”